The June 15 Insight article "5 ways to see if a high school is preparing for future jobs" lists important points to look for.

One quick assessment when parents attend school tours is to look at the furniture. Are there tables and chairs rather than individual desks? That tells a lot. That big donation infusion to San Francisco schools would be well spent on such furniture - a priority being science classrooms.

It's so limiting to do activities in science with slanted, individual desks and no running water in the room. Even high school science classes were unequipped to do activities. When I was teaching, I had to buy my own tables and was lucky to get chairs donated by a furniture company. How and what children learn now does not suit old-school furniture.

Poe Asher, San Francisco

Tenure's defense

In "Teacher training needed" (Open Forum, June 17), UC Berkeley Professor David L. Kirp argues for maintaining California's teacher tenure system, which the court struck down last week for denying disadvantaged students and high-poverty school districts access to the quality education guaranteed by the California state constitution. Would Professor Kirp be a tenured professor, by any chance?

Democratic 'democracy'

John Diaz's June 15 column, "A disgrace to a tech-savvy state," is only partially true. The state of our election databases is disgraceful, but what he doesn't say is that this disgrace is purposeful. California is the only state not to comply with the federal government's 2002 Help America Vote Act by implementing a required statewide voter identification database.

Democrats are now promising a statewide database by 2017. Secretary of State Debra Bowen, a Democrat, has hired, without competitive bids, the same contractor, CGI, that built the failed Obamacare website. I do not expect to see a finished product by 2017.

Why is this important? For example, my congressman's district spans three counties. A person can vote for Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney in all three counties and not be caught because of the lack of a statewide voter database. And with no picture ID the same person can vote in all three counties multiple times.

Voter fraud is real and rampant in California. We will not know its true extent as long as Democrats are allowed to sabotage the effort to stop it.

Hal Bray, Brentwood

Solidly autocratic

My blood boils when Debra Saunders whitewashes Hosni Mubarak as a "solid ally" ("Now unilateralism doesn't look so bad," June 17). How "solid" does one have to be for us to turn a blind eye to undemocratic governments that wipe their feet on citizens' human rights? Saunders is quite cavalier about other people's liberties when it's politically convenient, but I wonder how "solid" of a despot she'd be willing to put up with to benefit another nation entirely.

Integrity imperiled

I applaud John Diaz for educating readers about the delays in counting outstanding ballots after the June election. This was also observed in June 2012, when nearly 2 of every 3 ballots were cast absentee, and almost a third of the final vote totals were added in the weeks after the election.

Many precincts now serve the important role of accepting absentee ballots dropped of by voters before the 8 p.m. deadline on Election Day. Confirming the signatures and proper registration to prevent duplicate voting are a time-consuming process, and delays in certifying close elections will become more common as absentee voting increases in popularity.

The Chronicle is wise to call upon the secretary of state to require accurate and timely reports from each county of the remaining ballots to be counted, so that the winning candidates can be declared earlier, and the integrity of our elections strengthened.

John Maa, San Francisco

Little green patch

So they're asking me to stop watering my postage-stamp lawn.

Why?

So that the vineyards can thrive? So that the dishwashers at Zagat's finest restaurants can run nonstop? So that the Priuses, BMWs and Audis can shine? And those golf courses, yes!

I'm a recovering alcoholic (don't drink), I eat most my meals at home, I drive a 1997 Camry, and I play disc golf at Stafford Lake. (We don't water our fairways and putting greens.) Yes, I understand some of the economics of diverting water to these lucrative areas, but I still want to walk barefoot on my little green patch of lawn when I come home from work.